The return of the Hasidim to Jerusalem, Israel. From irreligion to religious life. MK Gandhi’s understanding of true civilization.

MK Gandhi criticized self-rule, when he declared “A man laboring under the bane of civilization is like a man dreaming. Everything will be done by machinery. Formerly, when people wanted to fight with one another, they measured between them their bodily strength; now it is possible to take away thousands of lives by one man working behind a gun. This civilization is irreligion and it has taken such hold on the people in Europe that those who are in it appear to be half-mad. They lack real physical strength or courage. They keep up their energy by intoxication. They can hardly be happy in solitude. Women, who should be the queen of households, wander in the streets or slave away in factories. Modern civilization’s true test lies in the fact that people living in it make bodily welfare the object of life.” Machinery, the chief symbol of the modern civilization represents a great sin.”